Presenter Profile
Michael Chappell, CPST-I
Rhode Island Hospital
mchappell@lifespan.org
Michael Chappell graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Science degree in consumer studies. He is currently a project coordinator for the Injury Prevention Center and is the Rhode Island state child passenger safety contact. He oversees a variety of programs including Safe Kids Rhode Island, the 4-Safety Program, and the Seats 4 Safety Program. He is a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician Instructor (CPSTI) and administers the national child passenger safety training course multiple times per year. He travels throughout the State of RI assisting at car seat checkup events at State, and Municipal Police Departments. Additionally, he supports community agencies with many injury prevention topics such as car seat safety, bicycle safety, and pedestrian safety. Prior to his employment at the IPC, he served 25 years as a police officer in South Kingstown RI. He has been devoted to injury prevention for over 25 years, working to keep the children of Rhode Island safe and free from injury.
Presentations
Statewide Child Restraint Distribution
Michael Chappell, CPST-I
The State is the smallest State in the country, but has a very robust Child Passenger Safety program. There are currently 157 Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPST's) certified in the State. Sixty five percent of these CPSTs, which equates to 102, are law enforcement. The remaining 35% of the CPSTs are spread out among The Injury Prevention Center, the State's only Children's Hospital. community partners, and volunteer fire departments. The State's Department of Transportation (DOT), is the sole funding source for all Child Passenger Safety (CPS) activities for law enforcement, IPC, and community partners. In the past, law enforcement agencies were given a set amount of money to purchase car seats. Those car seats had to last the entire grant year since there was no additional funding. High performing agencies would run out of seats, and be left with no car seats to distribute to caregivers who were in need. Based on this issue, a pilot program was created for a single car seat repository for all agencies and community partners who receive grant money from DOT.
The car seat distribution program is coordinated out of the Injury Prevention Center. DOT has supplied a single funding source where car seats can be purchased by the IPC. The car seats are stored in an off site storage unit. In conjunction with DOT, it was determined that each police department and community partner would receive a set amount of car seats to start with. Three convertible seats, one high back booster, and one no back booster would be given to each agency. The time frame was from 10/1/23 - 9/30/24. The IPC delivered to a total of 36 agencies (31 municipal police departments, 4 State Police barracks, and 1 Community partner). A total of 108 convertible seats, 36 high back booster seats, and 36 no back booster seats were delivered. Agencies would sign a "contract" at the time of delivery of the seats indicating they understood the terms of the program. This "contract" is filled out each time an agency receives additional car seats. Once an agency distributed a car seat, they send my office a form indicating the why, and what type of seat was distributed. To acquire more car seats, the CPST will email me to set up a time to come to the IPC.
The results have been positive. As previously stated, 36 agencies have participated in the program. No agency has run out of car seats, which equates to a 100% success rate as caregivers have not been turned away which occurred in the past. A total of 22 seats as of 5/30/24 have been distributed by 7 agencies. All data is maintained by the Project Coordinator. At this time, we have not had any challenges.
For the first year of the program, we have seen success with the statewide car seat distribution program. The intent is to fund this program again for FY 25.
1. Understand the structure and purpose of the statewide car seat distribution program
2. Identify the key stakeholders and their roles in the initiative
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot car seat distribution model